For one week this September, Pope Francis will trade umbrella pines and St. Peter’s Basilica for New York skyscrapers and D.C.’s Capitol dome. But though Catholics look forward to his trip to the U.S., a Roman holiday to the Vatican remains the best way to get close to the pope.

Italy’s third largest water body and one of Europe’s deepest, Lake Como has drawn vacationers for two millennia with its lucent waters, mountain landscapes, and Mediterranean climate. Visitors today enjoy lakeside parks, historic villas, and shopping in one of the world’s silk-design capitals. Here’s a brief primer on how to make the most of your time in this magical region.

Michelangelo’s frescoes, painted in bright colors to be visible from the floor, took four years, tormenting the artist, who penned a poem complaining of his aching spine. Completing the ceiling in 1512, he returned 24 years later to paint the “Last Judgment” on the altar wall. Here are a few more fun facts about this High Renaissance masterpiece.

It’s difficult to imagine what this city was like in the early 1960s, when the 87-mile-long Berlin Wall was intact and bristling with barbed wire and gun emplacements. Today, the wall has essentially been shattered into tiny bits, now scattered as souvenirs around the world.

Any child who has taken basic world history classes knows about Athens and its indelible contribution to Western civilization. But studying a place and its heritage is far different from actually being there.

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One of the few Central European capitals to survive the bombs of World War II, Prague stepped into the 21st century looking, more or less, as if it were stuck in the Middle Ages. “Tourism thrives in Prague because of its history. Her old towers, bridges, and churches tell a story,” says Karin Líšková, manager of Hotel U Zeleného Hroznu. “Visitors want to experience Prague as it was before, in the old times.”

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